#bigb is a listener and dealing with it well

[dredgesnails]

i know grian said he didn't know who got what powers (other than his own), but either he was lying about that or whoever did assign them knew exactly what they were doing because they feel like they've been made FOR them.

some of them are really obvious, like bdubs controlling time (both through speed and by sleeping), cleo getting to raise the dead (and grian getting to see skizz and mumbo again as a result), pearl getting to fly (arent her goggles and wings so moth-like? they are to me) and lizzie being a literal Shadow Lady. joel, bigb and scar all got powers that connect to their characters this season, like joel's affinity to parkour and bigb's whole creaking deal and scar really wanting to punch people far (and he's making a rollercoaster. what do you do with rollercoasters? you ride them...). etho "did that make you jump" slab gets to (literally) jumpscare everyone on the server and of course theatre kid rendog gets to pretend to be other people (he's also one of the few people who subbed in for another player during a prior season).

martyn's fits his lore as listener so well, grian's got the most watcher-like abilities of them all, and gem getting being able to see traps and communicate with the dead (one of whom is only there because he tried too hard to kill her) is brilliant with how she plays the game like she's got more control than anyone else (hello watcher/listener...?). finding connections with scott and impulse's powers might be more of a reach but to me they fit well because scott generally comes across as harmless and peaceful but he's also almost literally become a sacrificial lamb, and impulse switching places with other people makes me think of third life and his double crossing playing both sides schemes.

tango's might be my favourite because the frostwalker ability is so decked out deepfrost citadel to me, and he also gets to flee with extra flee (my personal favourite catchphrase of his). also (not to overanalyse) jimmy's power fits so well into his overall narrative as a canary who's broken his curse: he's never made it to a final episode, he's been grian's guardian angel (always watching, never seen) and with the canary gone from the mines there's nothing to warn the others so they're dead before they realise they're in danger.

[m4delin]

An oath reinfored

This is from a dnd AU I shared with @lythecreatorart and @a-magical-boy , and then Ly drew art of it and shared it in a discord server that forced me to talk more abt the au and then people added more and more things to it and I kept adding more things to it and then we ended up here-

Idk if I will be able to write the whole au from start to finish, but I so wanted to write this, both bc of how much I love this au and as a thank you for everyone induldging me askdjbaksd

So thank you a-magical-boy, Ly, @mayashesfly, @autumnwhistles and Sunnday! (all from Lew's lamplight discord server)

The premise of the au is that Ren is a weak god and has stepped into the mortal realm to look for his missing paladin, False. By pretending to be a paladin, he joins Martyn, Skizz, BigB and Etho on their journey. Stuff happens, Martyn starts to pray to Ren's god (aka Ren himself) abt how hot and good looking Ren is but bc of rules does nothing abt his own growing crush on Martyn. Ren has to sacrifice himself to save the world and that leads us to this situation!

Enjoy!

The fire warms Ren’s face, chasing away the evening chill trying to settle on his skin even though it hasn’t been truly able to do so this past week. Cold hasn’t been able to cling to him lately, even Etho has made a remark about how warm he’s been and Skizz checked him for a fever at that, insisting that it’s better to be safe than sorry after Ren’s fainting episode. But he’d been fine, no sign of sickness anywhere. He was just. Warm.

But Ren knows. He’s feeling great, never better in fact.

And isn’t that the problem.

Skizz asks him something, and all Ren has it in him is to give him a hum as he stares into the flames, watching them dance to their full extent before they’ll be extinguished, its life gone forever. Not unlike what was supposed to happen to him.

He doesn’t listen as Skizz returns to his discussion with BigB, but they speak in a lower tone than before, making it much easier to hear the cracking of the fire and the wind rustling in the trees. At least when you’re focusing on anything other than their discussion.

It’s thanks to that that Ren’s ears catch the sound of two pairs of footsteps approaching their small campsite, just before a small ember of warmth starts to spread through his chest.

Ren’s head snaps up towards the people arriving, ears perking up and tail wagging, and gives Martyn and Etho a small smile. “Welcome back,” he says, ignoring the giggle from Skizz that he’s sure is from his sudden change of mood. He honestly can’t help it.

Martyn seems to almost glow in evening light, and immediately a sour taste fills his mouth as guilt worms its way into his stomach.

The ember sits uncomfortable in his chest now.

“Caught anything good?” BigB says, snapping Ren out of his head. Martyn lifts his hand holding a piece of string with three fishes attached to it, a proud grin on his face. Etho copies Martyn’s movement, but instead of three fishes there’s five, albeit slightly smaller, fishes on his string.

“Yes!” Skizz says as he jumps up from his seat, hurrying over to the two men at the promise of a non ration dinner tonight. “Oh, I can’t wait!”

“Hey now,” Etho says, a smile on his voice, as he pulls his fishes out of Skizz’s range. “Let us deal with them, we don’t want the black mess from last time.”

Ren can’t help but to join BigB’s and Martyn’s laughter as Skizz splutters and protests against the accusation, even though everyone knows the truth in Etho’s words. It helps to ease the suffocating feeling in his throat, making it easier to breathe. Even just for a moment.

Teasing fills the air as Etho and Martyn start to prepare the fish for the fire, it being a quick work as the fish had already been gutted by the riverbank. BigB joins Etho and Martyn with dealing with the fishes, and Ren would’ve loved to help as well, but just like Skizz, he’s been banned from making fresh food. Making mortal food is surprisingly hard. He’s gotten better at it, the others have been teaching him since he joined them and they’ve realized he sucks at feeding himself, but it’s still a far cry from them trusting him to actually make edible food for the whole group. Ren doesn’t mind.

Ren settles with watching them prepare the food, and he tries to avoid watching Martyn work, but when there’s a pull at the ember in his chest his eyes immediately fall upon him.

Martyn doesn’t notice it, he hasn’t for the whole week, but Ren can see how Martyn subconsciously purifies the fish, making it safe to eat raw.

Any sort of appetite Ren might’ve had is gone now.

With a deep breath, Ren turns his head away and closes his eyes. But all it does is to pull all of his attention to the warmth in his chest, to the ember sitting there cozily, small but not on the verge of flickering out. A contrast to how it had been a week ago. A contrast to how it was supposed to be.

He can’t go on like this.

“Martyn,” he hears himself saying, and when he opens his eyes he finds the man looking at him, smile bright and soft. Caring.

“Yeah?”

Ren swallows against the lump in his throat. “Can we talk?”

“Sure.”

“Privately?”

Silence settles over the camp as everyone takes in Ren’s request, and the nervous sway of his tail. But Martyn breaks it as he hands over the fish he’s holding to Etho, and turns towards Ren, a wet rag in his hands to clean them off. There’s a worried expression on his face.

“Lead the way, boss,” he says as he wipes off his hands, chucking the rag back to the small bowl of water. Ren notices how some water spills over the edge, but pulls his eyes away and gives Martyn a nod before standing up and walking away from the comforting heat and light the campfire provides.

Evening light envelops them as Ren takes them out of earshot of the camp, and Ren can’t help but take in how beautiful Martyn is looking right now. The low sun catches his hair and it frames his face neatly, and his eyes draw most of Ren’s attention.The sleeves are still rolled up from dealing with the fish, and it shows off his arms and the muscle in them as they move. (Oh, he’s rolling them down.)

“So,” Martyn says as he crosses his arms, eyebrow raised, but worry still present.

And how was Ren supposed to go about it? About what he is, and what he turned Martyn into? About the lies?

‘Dear God,’ comes a prayer from the man in front of Ren, ‘Whatever that ailes your paladin, please help him through it.’

It makes Ren’s breath stutter as the warmth in his chest grows and guilt wreaks through his body in response, and he swallows heavily.

“Martyn,” Ren begins, his name almost like a prayer on his lips with how precious it is to him. “I- I’m not what I told you I was.”

The frown appearing on Martyn’s face almost ties Ren’s tongue down, making it hard to continue to form words, but he pushes through it. He has to. “I’m not a paladin.”

“Then what are you?” The question comes out quickly, and there’s no real judgement in Martyn’s words, but Ren still feels the ember flicker, more akin to how it behaved since he first stepped down to the mortal plane. All the time up until a week ago. And yet it’s too strong to be back to what it’s supposed to be.

All thanks to the man in front of him, who became something else without realizing it just to save his sorry ass.

Ren’s ears press against his skull, tail slotting itself between his legs and he closes his eyes. “I’m a god.”

It’s not exactly silence that greets him, as the sound of the nightbirds getting active fills the air as well as the soft rustling of the wind through the trees occupies it, but he hears nothing from Martyn. No change of breathing, no movement of clothes, no speaking. So Ren opens one eye to peek at him, and takes in Martyn’s slack faced expression.

“You’re a god,” Martyn repeats slowly, almost disbelieving, as Ren properly opens up his eyes, straightening his back ever so slightly.

“Yes.”

Ren can’t help but notice how Martyn’s adam apple bobs as he swallows.

“A god of what, exactly?”

“Community.”

Martyn’s cheeks start to darken. “You’re God of Community?”

“Yes. It’s- it’s a long story, but yes, I’m God of Community.”

Martyn raises his hands up in front of him as he takes a step backwards. “Hold up. Does that mean you’ve been hearing my prayers this whole time?”

A small blush makes itself at home on Ren’s cheeks at the reminder of what Martyn usually prays about. “Yes.”

The redness of Martyn’s cheeks intensifies tenfold as his hands fall to his sides. “Oh.” Then he spreads his arms out and does a small bow. “My Lord, please smite me down.”

The prayer startles Ren, warmth increasing in his chest, and he quickly raises his hands in an attempt to stop Martyn from doing what he’s doing. “Martyn, I’m not going to do that!”

“Do it for my sake, please.”

Ren grabs Martyn by the shoulders and pulls him up into a straight position. “I’m not doing it!”

Martyn lets himself be pulled, blush not diminishing at all, and groans. “Why do you have to be so cruel, my Lord?”

A small chuckle leaves Ren, the ember feeling more at home in his chest than it had been a moment ago. “It’s not really my thing, dude. Besides, it would be rather counterproductive if I did,” he says as he let go of Martyn.

Martyn sighs as he rubs at his cheek, blush slowly dying down. “Why didn’t you tell us sooner?”

Ren scratches the back of his neck “It’s… Complicated. There’re rules that I’m not really supposed to break that prevents me from. Well. Being here, really.”

Martyn tilts his head. “Rules? Gods got rules?”

“Of course,” Ren says with a nod. “It’s quite like how you mortals have rules. Like, there’s nothing really preventing us from breaking them, but there are consequences. Not just for us, but for the world too. Makes it more important for us to not break them, you know?”

A frown appears on Martyn’s face. “Then why are you telling me this now?”

The fear, something that had eased when Martyn had seemingly accepted Ren’s words, returns. Making his breath stutter and words heavy on his tongue. “A week ago,” he starts, thoughts whirling, “when I fainted after breaking the barrier, did something strange happen?”

Martyn looks at Ren’s face, studying him and Ren doesn’t know what he’s looking for but he does turn his head slightly to the side, so as to not look Ren in the eyes.

“Yes.” It takes a couple of moments of silence between them before Martyn continues. “When you fell, I got the overwhelming sense that you were dying. I ran over and when I touched you, everything disappeared.” He looks back at Ren, and his voice turns soft. “There was a small flame in front of me, and I just. Reached out, gathered it in my hands and pulled it close. It felt like it warmed my chest, and then I was back in the cave. I dunno why, but I knew you were okay after that.”

Ren sucks in a breath and it comes out shaky. “Okay,” he says as he drags a hand over his face, tail unmoving. He tries to keep his hands from shaking, and he’s not sure if he succeeds. “Martyn, I’m a very weak god. I’m nothing without False, she’s the one who keeps me alive, and that cave… It cut off any outside contact. It cut off my bond to False, properly. I was strong enough to stay alive, but any energy I spent there wouldn’t regenerate.”

Martyn is staring at him, an eyebrow raised but attention not wavering.

“Breaking that barrier took everything I had, every fiber of my existence. It should’ve killed me. I should be dead.”

“But you’re not.” Martyn’s voice is low, almost a whisper.

“But I’m not,” Ren agrees, warmth spreading through him and he tries to pull it back to the small ember it was supposed to be. He can’t get comfortable with it, not when it wasn’t intentional. “And it’s because of you.”

“Me?”

Ren’s eyes fall to the ground briefly before he takes Martyn’s hands in his and looks him into his eyes, ignoring the small blush growing on Martyn’s cheeks. “What you did in that cave… Martyn, that was a paladin’s oath. Perhaps a bit orthodox, but an oath nonetheless. You swore yourself to me, to serve me until your own life gets extinguished. Your belief is what saved me.”

Martyn’s eyes widen as his mouth falls open. “Oh.”

There’s a lump in Ren’s throat, and he struggles to swallow around it. But he does so anyway and he can’t stop the shake in his hands, even as he squeezes Martyn’s in an attempt to comfort himself.

“That oath… You didn’t know what you were agreeing to.” The next breath is more shallow than the ones before, and his sight blurs ever so slightly. “It was unfair to you. You can…” Ren swallows again, the warmth threatening to overtake him and disappear at the same time. “You can take back the oath if you wish.” His voice cracks at the end and his whole being wants to take back the words. Oaths aren’t meant to be broken (nor is it meant to be invoked unintentionally), it’s a bond for life (he can’t do that to him), it’s an assurance that they will care for each other (surely Martyn hates him now). It’s a promise to always return to each other (he don’t want Martyn to leave)-

Something is giving his hands a tight squeeze.

“Ren.”

Ren blinks away the blur in his eyes to the sight of Martyn giving him a serious expression, and Ren gives him a watery smile in return, trying to put on a brave face for the acceptance of the offer. “Yes?”

His breath gets caught in his throat as Martyn lifts one of Ren’s hands to his lips, pressing a kiss to his knuckles, before he goes down on one knee and presses his forehead against the place he kissed.

“Ren,” Martyn says again and Ren can barely hear him over the sound of his heartbeats, a blush working its way to Ren’s cheeks and his tail starting to wag. The ember rapidly grows in size.

“I might not know how to do a real oath, but I swear on my life that I will serve you for as long as I can.” He lifts his head just enough to lock his eyes with Ren’s. “You’ve done so much for us, for me, and never asked for anything but for help to find False. You’ve fought for us, healed us, kept us safe from who knows how many monsters. You’ve given so much of yourself for us, and so will I give all of me to you. I’ll stay by your side for as long as you allow me.”

The small flame becomes a fire, spreading through all of Ren, and this time he allows it. He allows it to settle in by his heart, to be warm as it’s supposed to be.

Martyn tilts his head down, pressing his forehead against Ren’s hand again. “Thank you, milord, for letting me to keep you safe for once.”

Ren has had many paladins swear themselves to him ever over the many years he’s existed, all with varying convictions about the beliefs. Some took the oath because it was expected of them, and some with the utter dedication of what Ren stands for, but they bound themselves to him nevertheless. A priest always oversaw it, saying parts of the oath for the new paladin to repeat, and later the paladin would make a private oath with Ren to reinforce the formal one. It would always be a small one, one to show what the new paladin would fight for. False was no exception from that, as she was sworn in by Ren’s last priest, even if she was far younger than what was normal. She’s Ren’s best friend, but she swore herself to God of Community, just like the previous paladins.

No one has sworn themselves to Ren before.

Tears threaten to fall, but for an entirely different reason compared to before. “Martyn-” Emotions run wild in Ren and he doesn’t know where to begin. He wants to scoop Martyn up in his hands, he wants to drag him into a dance, he wants a part of his being to nestle up right beside Martyn’s heart, he wants to hold him close, he wants to-

A wet laugh leaves Ren.

“If- if you want to make it more formal, you gotta say your name.”

Martyn looks up and gives Ren a deadpan look, and Ren can’t help but to laugh. He doesn’t know what else to do, this is the first time someone has ever taken an oath to him in person.

A tug on his hand makes him look back at Martyn, and there’s a teasing, but fond, smile on his lips.

“I, Martyn Littlewood,” he begins, and Ren’s breath gets caught in his throat. It’s dark now and yet Martyn seems to glow to Ren. “I swear my life to you, Ren, the God of Community. I’m hereby your paladin.”

“Welcome, Martyn Littlewood,” Ren says with a smile and tugs at Martyn’s hand to make him stand. “It’s my pleasure to have you.”

They’re standing close to each other, Ren can feel the warmth radiating from Martyn and he can’t stop staring at him. Ren doesn’t know what to do, but he knows he wants to pull Martyn closer, to hold him and bask in the heat. The flame of Martyn’s belief, his oath, is already prominent in all of Ren’s being and yet Ren wants more-

Martyn’s eyes flicker to the side, cheeks dark with a blush, and he clears his throat before taking a step backwards, his hand slipping out of Ren’s. “We, uh. Maybe should go and tell the others?”

Nervousness settles back into Ren’s stomach, but it doesn’t turn into dread. Not when Martyn is right there, a steady presence. “Yeah, let’s.”

They walk back towards the fire side by side and Ren can’t help himself but brush against their bond with fondness, and he knows Martyn feels it the moment he raises a hand up to his chest and grabs the fabric, his breath hitching. Ren has never answered a prayer before, never brushed against Martyn’s essence in fear of him recognizing what Ren truly is, but now Martyn knows and Ren couldn’t be happier. If the smile that Ren spots on Martyn’s lips is anything to go by, it seems like Martyn is pretty happy about this too.

When they finally step back into the light, Skizz stands up with his arms out, giving them a bright and hopeful smile. “There you are! How did it go?”

Ren blinks and furrows his eyebrows. “How did… what go?”

BigB and Etho shares a look behind Skizz as Skizz look between Ren and Martyn. “Uh. Your talk?”

“Oh, right.” Ren clears his throat and takes a deep breath.

“I’m here with you,” Martyn says through a prayer and Ren relaxes his shoulders, giving him a small smile as he reaches out with his soul and brushes against Martyn’s in comfort.

Ren exhales and steels his nerves. “I have something to tell you.”

Ren can’t tell why, but Skizz looks very excited at his words and he keeps glancing between him and Martyn.

“I’m not a paladin. I’m a god.”

For some reason disappointment flashes past Skizz expression before the words settles in, and he opens and closes his mouth in shock.

“What?” Etho and Skizz says at the same time while BigB crosses his arms and closes his eyes while leaning backwards a bit.

“That explains it. Makes sense,” he says with a nod before opening his eyes to look at Ren. Ren frowns slightly while Skizz spins around on the spot and Etho snaps his head towards BigB.

“What do you mean ‘makes sense’?!” Skizz splutters, flailing his arms around as if trying to explain his every thought through them.

BigB blinks at them as if surprised by everyone’s reaction. “I mean, every now and then Ren just kinda glows and has no face, you know? Him being a god explains why.”

“He was glow- BigB, why didn’t you tell us?” Skizz says in a scandalous voice as Ren blinks in surprise. Oh, BigB has seen parts of his godform.

Etho is laughing as BigB explains that he thought it was a trick of the light, and Skizz continues to act as if this is the greatest betrayal of all times. It’s just for show and Ren knows it in his heart, so he just laughs along with Etho and Martyn, fear dissipating completely.

There will be questions, and he will have to answer them, but for now he can laugh. And Martyn is by his side, hadn’t hesitated to enforce the oath he had unknowingly made.

Everything is okay, and for once, Ren fullhearted believes it.

[xelqua-the-jester]

Hi there 👋 I thought the little thing about your Creature Feature Au sounded cool and wanted to know of you had anymore info you wanted to share? I love it when people do messy timeline stuff and traveling between worlds and all that, makes my little lore brain happy (:

WAAA this ask made me smile so wide omg. I'd be more than happy to share more about it!!! (my apologies for the shortage been busy in life lol)

CREATURE FEATURE!

1.) Setting

It takes place in Hermitcraft Season 10 and Evolution, specifically during the midst of Watcher Obelisk trials. This AU does not contain Real Life or Wild Life as a part of its narrative (simply because of continuity / conflicting date reasons lol. Third Life - Secret Life are canon!). When Gem crosses over, it's basically like she's walking straight into a town going mad. The "portal" is actually a Watcher's Update Portal (the ones that the Evolutionists would use in order to jump from version to version). Nobody knows how it got to S10, but it sure isn't going.

2.) "Why Gem?"

Why not! Honestly, she just happened to be the first person I thought of when I was originally thinking about this AU and the pieces sorta started lining up soon thereafter. Considering her performance in Secret Life with raising the Boogeyman Army, her connection with the Watchers seemed like it would be strong enough for her to be the one to find this path.

3.) "Centaur...?"

YES!! I'm a huge fan of Hermit designs with fun and wacky headcanons. This AU is no different and follows a lot of the fanonly accepted tropes (Grian -> Bird/ Harpy Hybrid, Mumbo -> Vampire and/or Robot Hybrid, etc. I'll show off all my designs in due time LOL). That being said, these developments and hybrid changes are not present in the Evolution world. This is because of a few reasons. a.) As stated before, none of the Evolutionists have had these events occur to them yet. (Grian has yet to become a Watcher and gain his Watcher-like abilities, Pearl has yet to become "5 AM Pearl" and gain her moth-like abilities, Jimmy has yet to become "the Canary" and gain his bird-like abilities, (at this point) Martyn (and BigB in this AU) has yet to become Listeners and gain their Listener-like abilities). In Season 10, these events have already happened. b.) Due to being in such an early stage of humanity, Evolutionists haven't had the chance to literally evolve into these hybrid / abnormal beings, hence why they're all so surprised when a centaur shows up!

4.) "EVO!Martyn and EVO!Pearl. What's their deal?"

Well am I GLAD YOU ASKED!

In this AU (and in my own personal view of Evo), EVO!Pearl is a spy sent by the Watchers, specifically to keep EVO!Grian in line. Though not a Watcher, she does derive from the same plane as them, making her highly omniscient in the timeline of her life, including her future. Due to this fact, EVO!Pearl is aware that, at some point after Grian is taken by the Watchers, Grian creates the Life Series.

(Side tangent: In this AU, the Life Series is a seperate universe initially created by Grian, who does indeed have Watcher abilities at the time. After dying at the end of Third Life, however, he is greeted by the Watchers in the afterlife, who basically highjack the Life Series and starts taking control. They manipulate and force Grian to continue the games, even though he knows that it will only result in the cycle of watching his friends kill each other over and over and over again. As a way to try and compromise, Grian asked the Watchers to allow him to "split the universe", AKA live in another universe where his friends don't remember the Life Series (this universe being Hermitcraft) whenever the games weren't in session. The Watchers agreed but reminded Grian that the versions of his friends stuck in the Life Series universe will forever be tortured and exist in a limbo-like state in between the games (Eyes and Ears AU). This haunts Grian in modern day, but he pretends like it doesn't.)

EVO!Pearl resents Grian for the decision of creating the Life Series, considering the fact this means she is aware that he will eventually create a universe where she and all the friends she will make in the future will never escape a cycle of killing each other. This information drove EVO!Pearl basically insane, causing her to lash out towards the Evolutionists (Grian especially who, at the time, didn't even know what she was mad at him for) and distanced herself from them "out of safety". Eventually, EVO!Pearl goes missing entirely (but it doesn't stay that way once Gem starts coming along...)

EVO!Martyn has a similar tale, albeit a bit more complicated. At the end of EVO (which is when I believe Martyn becomes a Listener), he is also gifted with omniscience. It's a bit difficult to explain: Because end-of-EVO-Martyn has this ability, it retroactively makes AU-current-Martyn aware of his eventual fate. Unlike EVO!Pearl, EVO!Martyn is practically unbothered by this knowledge. Knowing that there is a future in which he wins with such glory! (Limited Life) Knowing that, someday, he will fight to bring down the Watchers that currently terrorize his town! It makes him PROUD! There's no shame in what the future holds for him. In fact, he makes jokes with/towards EVO!Grian about murder & betrayal frequently, something that angered EVO!Pearl prior to her disappearance. Simply put: He did not care!

("What about BigB?" because BigB's relationship with the Watchers doesn't start to truly bloom until the Life Series starts up (in a different universe entirely), he does not have the same retroactive powers (in the EVO timeline, at least).)

5.) "...So EVO!Grian and EVO!Jimmy don't know about the Life Series?"

Nope! Not at this point. Though Grian gains omniscience, he does not gain the retroactive abilities of a Listener, like Martyn. In fact, Hermit!Grian struggles to remember much of his time as an Evolutionist at all due to the fact the Watchers screwed him over so bad when they took him. Jimmy's situation matches BigB's, in which his connection with the Watchers started in an alternative universe, so he has no connection to it during his time as an Evolutionist.

6.) "How can Hermit!Pearl remember EVO, but not the Life Series?"

More Watcher manipulation babyeeee. Because Hermit!Pearl lives in a world where she does not remember the Life Series, her "memories" of Evo are warped. Though she knows she was (and still is) a spy for the Watchers, she has no recollection of ever getting "going crazy" (basically, she remembers EVO as how it actually happened OUTSIDE of this AU lol). Hermit!Grian knows that Hermit!Pearl doesn't remember the Life Series and does his best to prevent her from ever figuring it out due to the fact he fears that, if she were to learn about the fate of herself in the next universe over, it would trigger basically a sleeper agent emotion in her and cause her to end up like how EVO!Pearl did. And Grian does not want to see that happen again.

WOW that was a lot. I've been typing for at least an hour now LMAO

I could ramble about Creature Feature forever, honestly. I'm so grateful to hear that other people seem to be interested in it! If there's any more questions or comments on the AU, please don't hesitate to jump into my inbox!! I'm always so happy to answer them!! 💜

[applepixls]

hey guys. have you heard of hadestown.

(its a musical that meshes the myths of orpheus & eurydice and hades & persephone)

orpheus is a naive (sorta sheltered?) bard who acts on his whims while eurydice is a realistic and tough girl who's doing all she can to survive

hades is king of the underworld and keeps persephone there a lot of the year meaning there's a lot of winter up above

now hear me out.

3rd life.

scar as orpheus, grian as eurydice.

wedding song as scar proposing they take over the desert, the second verse being grian suggesting they take the dark oak. now, imagine all I've ever known as a dark night dancing in the desert not to mention, "its a sad tale, its a tragedy" (bonus: in a gathering storm eurydice calls for orpheus and he isn't there because he's off writing his song, narratively similar to grian calling for scar in double life when everyone was digging around for their sugar cane while scar was off accidentally lighting the place on fire and petting the jellie pandas)

extra bonus ideas:

persephone sounds like bdubs? like, listen to livin' it up on top. the gritty voice/singing and all her attitude (/pos) and some of the lyrics "who makes the summer sun shine bright?/thats right! persephone!" (he was the esmp2 sun god!) she sort of reminds me of the vibe bdubs gave off when he was ren the king's guy in s9 (my impression was he was kinda frantically running around at ren's whim, its not at all the same with hades and persephone but there's the sort of obeying a king thing)

leading me to my next thought of ren as hades. someone i was listening with said "winter has come" which made me think of "red winter is coming" dfhj

but another thought is just the last life ethubs divorce? seems very relevant with bdubs persephone parallels

also in hey little song bird hades refers to eurydice as a canary and we all know whos a canary

hermes (conductor of the train on the road to hell) and the fates play a narrator type role except hermes is more explicit while the fates are the humming in the back of your head they weave the path of how everything goes and you cant defy them

martyn throughout all the series is a sort of nomadic no solid home kinda guy and always self aware (he makes the lore-) which connects him to hermes for me but at the same time the fates are very much watcher/listener things so like bigb and martyn? (i don't know the lore sorry lol) i'd also say that somehow impulse's littlefinger flip floppy triple double agent character in third life gives a vibe like he knows whats going on in all the groups also connecting him to them for me

(i will say scar could fit hermes as well in being a sort of travelling sales person in last life and a bit in double life? also I've read dirges in the dark which means i see him and the devil and making deals with complicated clauses as very interconnected)

my final note (and being a devils advocate)

scar could also parallel hades.

if you watch his perspective he's very happygolucky and doesn't seem to get the real weight of the situation and such but from other perspectives his and grians deal seems kinda like he's had grian sign away his soul or he's kidnapped grian and there's some stockholm syndrome happening (its actually grians guilt but i digress)

hades convinces eurydice (scar is a silver tongued man) to sign away her soul to him and also the story of hades and persephone is that he kidnaps her and she eats some pomegranite and has to stay in the underworld for part of the year

sooo yeah. paralells between hadestown and 3rd life/life series. enjoy.

[jettboat]

CHAPTER 3 - NEW INFORMATION AND COOKIES

"Dude! That's so cool! Are you like invincible right now?!" Bdubs stood up from his chair in excitement, making Etho jump.

"Yeeess... Until someone hits me and finds my heart-" Etho stopped before looking back up at his friend. "You're not going to hit me to find my heart, are you?"

"What?! No!" Bdubs sat back down and crossed his arms. "I don't want to hurt you!"

Etho's shoulders seemed to relax, which made Bdubs's heart sink.

Did Etho think he was gonna hurt him? Why would he ever do that! Did someone he trusted hurt him?

Before Bdubs could follow that train of thought, a knock on the door rang out through the house.

Etho and Bdubs froze, Etho pulled back up his mask. Bdubs immediately looked down at his cocoa to let Etho stand up.

He heard Etho walk towards the door and creak it open. Then he heard a sigh of relief before a familiar voice made it's way to Bdubs's ears.

"Etho! I heard what happened!" BigB said before dropping his voice to a rather loud whisper. "Is he causing you trouble?"

Bdubs heard Etho close the door. "No BigB, he's fine. Better than I thought, actually. Oh- You can look up now, Bdubs." Etho said.

Bdubs looked up and nearly jumped out of his skin.

BigB was part wood! He was a creaking like Etho??

"Don't be scared! I can only hold my human form for so long and I can't transform right now!" BigB explained hastily while wildly waving his arms, nearly whacking Etho in the face.

"Human form?" Bdubs asked.

"Yeah! I can only keep up my human form for an hour. Etho, here, can hold his all day." BigB explained.

"Until I need to go to sleep." Etho chuckled, taking off his mask.

"Yeah, until he needs to sleep. You still need to tell me how you managed that, dude!" BigB responded.

"Not right now, do you want a hot cocoa?" Etho asked pointing his thumb towards the kitchen.

"Sure. I wanna get some info outta Bdubs." BigB explained.

"I'm still here, you know!" Bdubs yelled before looking back down at his cocoa so the others could move.

The two creakings moved around the house, BigB to the couch (Bdubs only knew that because Etho started telling BigB to not get splinters and leaves all over his recliner chair again) and Etho to the kitchen.

Bdubs heard Etho pour a mug of hot cocoa and give it to BigB before making his way back to his spot across from Bdubs.

"So, what type of creature are you?" BigB asked.

Bdubs took a long sip of his cocoa. "I'm just a human." He mumbled.

"What's wrong with being a human?" Etho asked.

Bdubs looked at the two creakings for a moment. "You guys aren't gonna be like 'arg he's a human! I'm gonna kick him outta my woods!' or something like that?"

The two creakings now looking very confused.

"What?? No?? Why would we do that?" BigB asked.

"My old village didn't have a lot of humans in it, I got bullied a lot, got into a few fights... So, you guys... Aren't angry?" Bdubs asked.

"No! Of course we aren't!" Etho said. "We thought you'd be angry at us!"

"Well. This is one confusing night." Bdubs laughed, making the other laugh as well.

The laughter was interrupted by Bdubs's growling stomach.

"I'll find some food." Etho said before Bdubs turned to look at BigB.

"Any other questions?" Bdubs asked as he heard Etho rummaging through a chest in the kitchen.

"Yep!" The creaking responded. "Why'd you come into the garden anyways?"

"Oh! Grian and Martyn wanted me to find out what Etho was in exchange for a life." He explained.

"Those two are trouble together. Wasn't it Grian first, then Martyn joined in the shenanigans later?" BigB asked.

"Yeah! It was weird, Grian was giving me the details of the deal and Martyn was just standing there listening." A chill ran down Bdubs's spine. "I don't like what they're planning."

"Me neither." Etho had sat back down at the table.

The creaking tossed one cookie to BigB and handed one to Bdubs.

BigB gasped happily before immediately munching on it.

Etho nibbled on his, Bdubs usually saw him eat by raising his mask a bit so he could eat and no one could see his eye, and that was when he rarely ate around others.

As Etho ate his cookie, his two eyes stared down at his snack as if inspecting it, but his third eye scanned the room of any dangers. It landed on Bdubs for a split second before quickly looking away. Bdubs guessed Etho was still getting used to his friend knowing his secret.

Bdubs dunked half his cookie into his cocoa as BigB made a muffled gasp as an idea struck him.

"I heard about this new biome! A kingdom of sweets! We should totally go tomorrow! It might have answers on the two mischief makers!" BigB exclaimed.

"How will sweets help us get Grian and Martyn off our tails?" Etho chuckled.

"Grian's a sugar plum fairy. Duh!" BigB raised his arms in the air, sprinkling crumbs all over Etho's couch and rug. "It will definitely have answers to what their up to."

"I like the sound of that!" Bdubs said.

The two looked towards Etho with goofy smiles on their faces.

Etho sighed. "I'm out numbered, aren't I?"

"Yep!" The two yelled in unison.

--------------------------------------------------------

"Martyn? Where are you going?" Ren asked as he watched Martyn fold and tie a rope around his dress so it wouldn't drag on the ground.

"Going on a quick trip with Grian, will be back soon!" Martyn explained before looking up and smiling at his snail-dog friend.

"Can I come?" Ren asked, his tail wagging a bit.

Martyn bit his lower lip, he looked torn.

"I'm sorry, you can't. You need to watch the base, I'll be gone for a few days at most." There was a crack in Martyn's voice when he spoke. Plus, I... It might be dangerous. I don't want you getting hurt. Not when you're on yellow."

Ren was quiet for a moment before walking up to Martyn and giving him a tight hug.

"Then be careful. Please." The snail-dog said softly.

"I will... I will..." Martyn mumbled as he hugged Ren just as tightly.

Ren wasn't sure why Martyn needed to go with Grian, but he knew his friend would be okay.

--------------------------------------------------------

Martyn broke down into tears when he left Renwood.

He was tired. Tired in general and tired of being forced to follow Grian around... Or what was left of Grian...

The watchers were awful beings. Martyn knew that well. And if he wanted to see Ren after this night, he'd need to keep following Grian.

And so, he walked off towards the Sub 1 Club's base to find the watcher.

--------------------------------------------------------

I'm so glad you guys are loving this au as much as I do!

So sorry for the long wait! I've been super busy! Have this really long, lore filled, chapter as a reward for your patience!

Also, I haven't announced this but I changed Bdubs to a human! He gets ✨lore✨!

After the main plot is finished, if you guys want, I can make one shots and qnas in between the mer au!

Thanks for reading this really long chapter! Have a great day! And a cookie from Etho! 🍪

[xoxo-ren-xoxo]

Alright i just have to know, please tell me more about the wip "Grian Watcher L (trans edition)" 👀👀👀

(ask game)

OF COURSE. gosh. of course. this one is the one you chose. well, it is one of the few wips I actually think I might finish one day at least!

My 'Grian Watcher L' convention of naming things is related directly to my Watcher & Listener Fics which are actually inspired by your Hunger AU!!

cw: major character death, philosophical... issues

For the unaware, the context behind this au is that Grian got yoinked by the Watchers after Evo and they kinda killed him (rip, very sad, blah blah blah) and replaced him with a Watcher-vessel in a process called Transfer, creating an exact clone with all of his memories, personality, thoughts and feelings.

Watcher-vessel Grian knows he is a clone, and remembers dying, but doesn't really understand how he is fundamentally any different from his past self (he sees himself as more of a continuation than a replacement), so he doesn't tell anyone until Pearl figures it out. This does not go well for him as many of his Evo friends are very upset, grieving their friend while faced with a living reminder of him. But the other Hermits don't really care as much. Yay?

The second fic in the series follows BigB and how the Listener version of Transfer, Hollowing, works. BigB is also a little freak but he's less bothered about it because he sees himself as still the same person. Grian disagrees and thinks the original BigB is dead just the same as the original Grian is. It gets philosophical.

Anyway, transgender allegory- the people around Grian insist that he is a different person now, that he somehow killed his old self. Grian just thinks, well, his old self had to die for his new self to exist at all. And he's still the same person, isn't he? This is transgender ☝️

Then it turns out she is actually transgender for realsies. That is what this fic will be about. (we got there eventually). Following the same 5 + 1 format as the previous two fics, this one will follow Grian as she comes out as transfem to Scar, Pearl, BigB, Jimmy, Impulse & Bdubs, and Mumbo (except Mumbo already figured it out).

SNIPPET TIME!!! a long one, just for you

Scar tilted his head. “Oh, well, then—you’re a woman?” And, oh, the rush of that. Grian shuddered as a wave of sparks ran down his spine.

Or… her spine, maybe.

“Yep. Yeah, honestly, you saying that might’ve just sealed the deal.” Taking a moment to breathe, Grian slipped her tongue against the inside of her cheek, sounding out the terms in her head. She. Her. Woman. Girl. Those stubborn words so naturally fell into places she’d kept locked away. In the void of her insides, a light sparked.

Like some piece of her finally came home. 

A trembling laugh warbled from her mouth. Her eyelids fluttered, batting away the sting of tears. She took a deep, cool breath, as if emerging from dusty rubble. Distantly similar to her original’s death, the neverending pressure suddenly ripped itself away, leaving snow-fresh, unburdened life in its wake.

The thought lingered, unwelcome. An idea of what might have been, if her original had lived to see this day. If he ever gave it thought. A single word, an idea, even the slightest notion. If he would’ve been happier, if he’d known he wasn’t a ‘he’ at all.

Perhaps he would’ve been, but he was also dead. He probably had bigger things to worry about, like decaying into the code of the universe, recycled as all things are. Grian worried her lip under blunt teeth, and met Scar’s soft gaze.

“Do you still… this is stupid–” she rubbed at her eye with the heel of her hand– “do you still want to be, um…” in all honesty, she didn’t have a word for what they were. They were always just Grian and Scar, Scar and Grian, against the world. But she knew Scar preferred, well, men. At least, that’s what he seemed to convey. 

Yet, sitting there with a smile stretched across pitted skin, Scar opened his arms freely. “Of course, of course!” Grian breathed out her relief, shoulders relaxing just a tad. Winking, Scar wheeled himself to her side. “Y’know, a good man swings both ways.” 

He waggled his eyebrows, angling for a kiss, so she gave him one. A chaste peck on the forehead. 

“Right.”

~~~~

hope you enjoyed :3 this series would not exist without Hunger AU so ermm thank you! for the ask !! and for writing such a good fic !

[blueishspace]

Third Life with divine domains.

Part 4: Session 5 and 6

Fandom

For session 3 & 4 there isn't much to say this time, except that the god of forests dying to lava and then fire is...perfect. Thank you @easily-distracted-by-fandom for opening my eyes to that.

Also, sticking with Frosted Forest as a name for the BigB, Scott and Jimmy alliance... @shortystack75 convinced me.

Session 5

Frosted forest is fully complete, Scott finishes the walls and BigB finishes the castle.

While Scar is still yellow him wanting to attack the crastle can still happen as Pizza was still kidnapped by them... So Grian still comes up with the lava trap.

Martyn doesn't kill Ren, who is and remains green, meaning red winter isn't coming...yet... Who knows?

Ren still searches for alliances though and the first place he goes is Frosted Forest... In this timeline Scott and Jimmy dislike Grian and Scar a whole lot more and BigB... well, he joins Dogwarts in canon so... Frosted Forest creates a tentative alliance with Dogwarts, at least for now...though knowing Scott's indipendent stresm they remain separate groups. Allied, not joined.

Tango still broke the rules by wearing an helmet so to the firing range he goes... Though It's probably surrounded by a moat and water instead of flames that he dies... Bdubs wouldn't give him the free boost. Etho follows shortly after.

Cleo still burns Joel's base as revenge so Joel also still dies today... Followed by Bdubs as the lava trap does It's job.

Scar and Grian try to ally with Frosted Forest but are turned down by BigB (for stealing his cookie), Jimmy (for stealing his second life) and Scott (for stealing his cow...and making him deal with a red life Jimmy).

Grian and Scar still steal Skizz's banner but thanks to Grian's glowing ability and Scar speed escape before being found out... They aren't followed so Pizza doesn't die and the banner burns.

Session 6

Scar has no reason to get revenge on Etho with Pizza alive so no arson.

Joel still starts a dog army by breeding his dog with Etho's (scandalous I know)... And then burns down Scott's wall attacking one of Dogwarts allies in the process... He makes himself an enemy of Ren slightly before canon but that's it.

Good thing Scar and Grian are in desperate need of allies and have allied with Cleo already...

Etho doesn't need to get revenge on Scar because Scar never gets revenge on Etho so he doesn't steal from the sandlands and doesn't die in the progress... Which means most of the stuff at the end of the session caused by Dogwarts leaving to get Etho's things back doesn't happen including Cleo's death.

Lives

I think it's time to put a list of everyone's number of lives...to make my job easier mostly...but also to make this less confusing for you readers.

Grian, Scott, Martyn, Cleo, Ren, Impulse and BigB are green lives.

Etho, Joel, Scar and Tango are yellow lives.

Skizz, Bdubs and Jimmy are red.

Fandom p.2

Let's be honest, this is just me asking for comments again... I just find people being involved and partecipating really motivating.

So yeah! Suggestions! How does the fandom change? I'm interested! And if anyone has any ideas of how Hermitcraft would be connected, I'm listening.

Previous part

Next Part

First part

[secret-task-tracker]

Session 8

!!Spoilers Below!!

Depending on how the next episode will go this might be our last post. o7

Will update once Etho uploads his video (get well soon Etho!)

Grian:

"A fallen player is your ghostly angel, they will secretly guide you through this episode, you must do what they say. You fail if anyone asks you if you are talking to someone else. They will contact you using ethereal means to set up a means of conversation."

Status: Achieved

Scott:

"You are a bad spy. You must listen in on red players' plans, but convey bad intel to your fellow yellow players. You must give at least 3 significant false intel such as incorrect targets or intentions. At least one of the bad intel must be acted upon by another player"

Status: Failed (voluntarily)

Etho:

unknown just yet but we do know its been

Status: Re-rolled

Pearl:

"During this session you must leave conversations in a creative way. You pass when you have successfully left 8 different conversations or encounters in a different manner, You can leave conversations as normal, but it will not count towards your final goal"

Status: Failed

Scar:

"You must sabotage at least 3 red players bases without being seen. You can hide their stuff, destroy farms or burn things. If you are caught, you fail."

Status: Achieved (nearly clicked the re-roll button again though)

Impulse:

"During this session you must enter conversations in a creative way. You pass when you have successfully entered 8 different conversations or encounters in a different manner, You can enter conversations as normal, but it will not count towards your final goal"

Status: Failed

Cleo:

"@/supergratmonkey You are a secret santa. You have to randomise who is naughty and nice on the server. You must give a gift to all nice players and pull a trick, damage or steal from naughty players. You can not do the same gift/trick twice in the session."

Status: Failed

Red Tasks:

Joel:

"Fire arrows from an unenchanted bow continuously at GoodTimeWIthScar until they deflect with a shield. If they die, you also succeed"

Status: Achieved

"Build an explosive under a high traffic area. Detonate it from afar when a conversation is happening, If you deal any damage, you succeed"

Status: Achieved

"Build a TNT cannon and successfully hit a base from at least 50 blocks."

Status: Achieved

"You must damage a yellow or green player by firing a bow straight up into the air. The angle can not be below roughly 70 degrees."

Status: Achieved

"Tame at least 5 wolves and use them to deal damage to a non-red."

Status: Achieved

Status: Failed (ran out of yellow names but I don't think he pressed the fail button so technically not a full fail)

BigB:

"Summon a mob using an egg to deal any damage to any green."

Status: Achieved

"Strike a deal with a non-red to cause at least 3 hearts of damage to another non-red. You succeed when they have dealt the damage."

Status: Achieved

"Go invisible and hit at least 5 different people with a sword within 1 minute without being hit back."

Status: Failed (ran out of players to attack)

"Cause a player to take suffocation damage of any kind."

Status: end of session'd

Bdubs:

"Kill a green name with a trap of any kind."

Status: end of session'd (he took a really long time and ran out of people to kill)

Martyn:

"Find a non red name with at least 20 hearts. Take approximately 10 of them in any way you see fit. If there are none, damage any player for at least 5 hearts"

Status: Achieved

"Go invisible and punch a green life off a cliff. They must take at least 3 hearts of damage."

Status: end of session'd (and ran out of potential targets)

Scar:

"Dig many 1x1 holes at least 15 blocks deep in high traffic areas until someone falls in one. Hide them with tall grass."

Status: end of session'd

Tango:

"Enderpearl into a conversation, deal as much damage as you can to as many players, if you are hit or they all run away enderpearl away"

Status: end of session'd

Cleo:

We didn't get to see but it was

Status: end of session'd

Skizz:

"Kill a green name by any means. They can fight back once you have initiated combat."

Status: Achieved

Then he never showed his second task ever and I just assume he got

Status: end of session'd

Gem:

"Eliminate at least 3 non-red horses or all of a player's wolves."

Status: Achieved

"Mine a big hole underground then spleef a player into taking damage into it."

Status: Achieved

"Add berry bushes anywhere and everywhere. Caused someone to get pricked by one. You can punch people into the bushes if you need to."

Status: Achieved

"Cause a player to take fall damage of over 1 heart."

Status: Achieved

"Hit a green name with a sword until they block you with a shield. If you kill them you also succeed."

Status: Achieved

"Build a base at close to build height to ''hide your valuables''. Wait for a non-red to investigate and push them off."

Status: end of session'd

In loving memory of:

Lizzie, Timmy, and Mumbo

Oh my god this took so long lmao. Anyways if I made any mistakes tell me please k thanks byeeeeee.

[thefrostedmain]

I am very eyes emoji about DATH. Would you mind sharing more about it?

okay so. dusk along the horizon. it was originally a treebark au (you'll be unsurprised to hear who the werewolf was in that version of the story) that i reciently decided to turn into an oc story

the main pair of the story are a vampire named selene hazelwood (originally martyn) and a werewolf named dawn lowell (originally ren)

i went on an infodump on discord to basically any of my friends willing to listen to me so:

okay so. dawn. main character and through who we see the story from. she's a very very reciently turned werewolf who ended up joining an organization that hunts vampires out of the logic of "they're not gonna attack their own members... right??" and fear that they would be very willing to try to turn against werewolves too

the first mission she and a group gets sent to is around this fairly large town and a manor of five vampires living nearby a- not quite a city but a bigger town i guess. the hunters send out dawn to "investigate" and see if she can make herself friendly to the vampires to get them off guard (the intent was always that if she died, it wasn't that much of a big deal, since she was a fairly new recruit)

dawn meets and stays with this group of five for a bit- they immediately recognize she's not human, and hearing from the hunters, they assume she's hiding from them too- becoming quite close friends with them and particularly of selene, who im leaning towards her being one of the younger of the five? (in the original mcyt au context, this group is the evo-traffic overlap: grian, pearl, bigb, jimmy, and martyn. these vampires' names, or at least the ones i know, are nigel, pearl, beau and selene. pearl kept her name and jimmy doesn't have a name yet) and may or may not be getting a bit of a gay crush on her? also in general, she's helping her with the wolfiness, with understanding it better, since she went though the same process when she became a vampire

so. the group of hunters, hearing that the group has basically taken dawn as their own, basically tell her to keep up the charade, she's doing well. dawn, hearing this, feels like Shit and may or may not be having a crisis of loyalties because she feels like she's betraying her vampire friends (which. she very much is at that point) and leading on selene

meanwhile selene finds a silver dagger (which both vampires and werewolves are weak to) in dawn's room, looking for something else she forgot there. the dagger is carved with the symbol of the hunter organization. uh. selene might start assuming the worst because she has ✨ trauma ✨

i'll put the trauma as: the person who turned her into a vampire to begin with was a pretty awful ex and in general to be around with? and she's terrified that this means that history is repeating itself and she did fall for another person who could not care less for her

meanwhile dawn is trying to figure out how exactly to solve her little conflict of loyalties, selene may or may not come with the dagger and very pissed and genuinely thinking dawn is planning on murdering her and her loved ones- or at least help with it

selene ends up threatening dawn with the dagger, getting out of her that yes she's part of the hunters, no she genuinely doesn't want this group of people dead please put that down. so uh plot is a bit fuzzy and undefined from this point but the hunters are absoutely not coming by the end of the story in one piece <3

that's the plot more or less?

for designs, selene does have a design, unsure for dawn yet but i have picrews!

here's for dawn the picrews

yeah if you have any questions pls send more asks this brain is deciding to be very autistic about this story-

there are more thoughts around two side characters, jimmy (who still doesn't have a name, working on that) and theodore ("bdubs", one of the hunters). both of these are respectively the closest person to selene and dawn in their group

[stiffyck]

"Scar-" Grian started, hand outstretched towards the trembling man in front of him. "I need you to listen-"

"NO!" Scar retorted. "You need to listen, for once in your fucking life just SHUT UP and let me speak!"

Scar was panting at this point, and appeared to be steeling himself for an argument. Grian, however, just drew back his hand with a heartbroken expression on his face.

"'All alliances from last season are null and void.'" Scar quoted, his smile turning into a vindictive sneer. "'Oh, come with me Mumbo, it'll be so much more fun.' 'You'll be fine, you have Joel.' You couldn't have made it more obvious you didn't want me around if you'd tried."

Grian opened his mouth, closed it, and then opened it again. Scar gave a manic laugh, tears threatening to spill over in his eyes.

"You know, me and Cleo are similar in many ways." Scar began, staring daggers into his- friend? Did Grian deserve that title now?-'s face. "Both pretty good in pvp. Both have pasts we'd rather not discuss. Both of us would do anything for those we care about." The elf took a step closer. "And neither of us take kindly to being betrayed."

Grian gulped, but Scar was still not done with his rant.

"We have different ways of dealing with that betrayal, though, don't we Grian? Surely you saw Cleo hunting BigB down until she was able to take his final life. Surely you must've noticed the suspicious lack of Scars hunting you?"

"Scar, that was all in a different server!" Grian pleaded.

"Oh, I know." Scar said. He started laughing again. At first, it seemed like a laugh of intense anger, but to those who knew him well- as Grian did- it was obviously meant to cover up extreme heartbreak. "All relationships ended, huh? Just tell me the truth. I know you hate me, you don't have to keep hiding it." His voice lowered. "It's okay, really Grian. I would hate me too. I just wish you'd say it and stop dancing around something anybody can see."

"Wha- Scar I don't hate you! I never did, how could I possibly hate you? If you'd just let me explain-" He was cut off by a harsh bark of a laugh from Scar. The man grinned, but there was no joy in his eyes.

"It's my legs that don't work, not my brain, Grian." Scar turned around, and started to move away. "I'm dumb, but I'm not an idiot."

Do I have any clue what this was? No. It obviously takes place post-ll, but I was mainly just writing words as they come to mind. I can see quite a few plot hole and things I'd normally fix, but I honestly can't be bothered today. Here's an example of a not even remotely proofread first draft of mine guys! Hopefully I at least managed to capture some of what my goal was, because I know that if I go back and fix it I'll end up spending 20 minutes trying to fix this and I don't have the time to do that. Feel free to critique it, god knows the perfectionistic editor in me is desperately trying to.

ANXJFKDNSBA WAAAAA OH MY GOD OH MY GODDDDD

THIS IS SOOOO GOOD I LOVE THIS

[aleksiej]

MARTYN’S ENDING EXPLAINED

First three paragraphs talk about the Evo SMP and both the Watchers and Listeners. You can skip that, if you’re already familiar with their concepts. 

For everyone who don’t know, Martyn was on the Evo server with Grian, Jimmy, Pearl, BigB and others a few years ago. In the lore of this server, there were entities called “The Watchers”, who’s job was to navigate the players to jump through the updates, as the server has started in a very old version of Minecraft and was updated, when the players found clues and portals left for them by the Watchers. 

I cannot speak of what exactly happened during the full server runtime, as I am yet to watch Martyn’s POV of the events, but I can say that Grian, after having his series last 51 episodes and, in matter of the lore, disappeared after taking on the Ender Dragon. All information points to him becoming a Watcher, as the ending poem that shows after killing the Dragon for the first time was altered and depicted two Watchers talking, and at the end had a line that was probably Grian (thanking for watching and supporting the series) marked as Watcher 3. 

After Grian left, to the canon introduced The Listeners, as a kind of counterpart to The Watchers, although if it’s wrong please do tell me, I’m not an expert. 

And finally, we are back on the Last Life SMP. Martyn lost his final life, on the podium as a third to stay alive. After death, he talks with a mysterious voice who has been talking to him during this whole season of Last Life. The voice declares him to be a failure for not ensuring the victory for himself nor, interestingly, Ren, who the voice would be satisfied with as a winner as well. But, Scott being the last one standing, and him opposing the Boogey curse the session before, the voice definitely ain’t pleased. It speaks about the 3rd Life, and the Red Winter and how it made it hungry for not only blood, but for fear and confusion and betrayal that the war in 3rd Life simply didn’t provide. Martyn then asks about Grian and what was the voice’s deal with him. The voice disaproves of Grian, because he is participaiting in the death game, when he was only supposed to be Watching. You know, like a Watcher? The voice then calls Martyn “more of a Listener”, which, fair. He did listen to that voice the entirety of Last Life. 

So, are Martyn and Grian kinda opposites? Will it change in the next season? Will there even be a next season? Did the Watchers made the moon big? 

So yeah, all I can say is, treebark is the Watchers’ OTP, flower husbands - the absolute oposite and Grian is a feral cat that they don’t like cause it doesn’t follow the rules and makes a mess everywhere. Oh, and also, Evo and the 3rd/Last Life series are connected in lore and I love it. Gonna go now madly theorize about Scott’s Elsa powers in Empires SMP, buh-bye!

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

nobody talks about what happened in Last Life

Boatem is mostly silent nowadays. the chocolate factory doesn’t sing like it used to. the streets are empty of their usual decorations. even the Midnight Alley’s night sky seems duller than usual. and at the next meeting, Grian does most of the talking but his heart’s not fully in it. Scar and Pearl do their best to support him but Impulse barely says anything and Mumbo leaves halfway through the meeting. Grian knows he caused this but there’s nothing he can say or do now to put it right.

two thirds of the Big Eye Crew hardly speak to each other. Keralis likes to keep an eye on them but that means he witnesses them being frosty to each other when they get together and spots them purposefully changing their paths if they’re about to bump into each other. Keralis has given up trying to mediate; it doesn’t end well. all he catches are snippets about being stabbed in the back. but that’s crazy, neither of them would backstab the other… right…?

Ren has nightmares most nights. Doc has gotten into the habit of waking himself up in the middle of the night to find Ren on the roof of the Octagon, watching the moon and talking to himself, sounding like he’s rehearsing a Shakespearean play. he too has not talked about what happened, but Doc knows it was bad. all he can do is support his friend as best he can.

Etho has become more distant from Iskall. he spends most of his time working on his projects all alone or going to visit Bdubs. Iskall starts to feel replaced. unneeded. but when they voiced this to Etho once, Etho brushed them off. he hardly listens to them anymore, so Iskall stops trying to talk. but that doesn’t mean it hurts any less when he sees Etho break down in tears when he thinks nobody’s watching.

Cleo hasn’t been the same for a while. on more than one occasion, Joe finds her gazing at the castle wall as if desiring to burn it down. he’s almost entirely stopped deliberately annoying or provoking her, thanks to her snapping viciously at him when he accidentally startled her on her first day back. he’s never been truly scared of Cleo before now.

Legacy is almost empty, which is both good and bad for Skizz. on the one hand, at least it means peace and quiet. but on the other, it means Skizz is alone with his memories most of the day. he’s taken to bugging Logic and the remaining Legates for anything he can help with, anything at all. Logic is the only one receptive to his needs. he knows how the burning desire to keep busy feels.

the other Empires are too afraid to ask why Joel surrounds himself with wolves all the time. why Lizzie is so jumpy and wary of other people now. why Scott has closed himself off from the world. why Jimmy tries to spend as much time as he can in the desert. everyone has their own way of dealing with trauma, but nobody ever talks about it.

Martyn and BigB are on their own. neither wanting to go back to their respective worlds, they travel together for a while but the memories become too painful, so they separate. BigB gets permission to stay in Empires for a while, but Martyn has nowhere else to go. eventually, Skizz gets him invited to Legacy. Logic is relieved to be able to give one of Skizz’s friends a safe place to recover. and Martyn is grateful for the abundance of distractions.

nobody talks about what happened in Last Life. not even with each other.

[docs-mailbox]

<Docm77> ok basically <Docm77> i was talking with ren right <bigbst4tz2> oh i know him!!! <Docm77> im aware. <bigbst4tz2> Tell him i said hi <Docm77> we spoke a bit and he may or may not have talked me out of my neutrality policy on the poe <Docm77> he pulled the best friend card on me <Docm77> which makes me feel more guilty than the husband card <bigbst4tz2> haha wow <Docm77> and <Docm77> by some mad convenience <Docm77> i got a message from one of my viewers

A few minutes pass.

<bigbst4tz2> Are you talking about the watchers or am I just getting confused??? <Docm77> yea watchers i heard you like those guys <bigbst4tz2> I DO <bigbst4tz2> Didnt realize you shared my fondness =:.} <Docm77> ehhh theyre cool sometimes <Docm77> i try not to get too incredibly involved in their shenanigans because the last time i really went and leaned into that <Docm77> well it was not great for the mental health of anybody really which is kind of to be expected <Docm77> it started with me and ren building a tesla coil and ended with us killing six other people for our moon cult and falling into the void <Docm77> fucking bizarre <bigbst4tz2> it happens. <Docm77> but when they have good ideas or interesting thoughts i do try and listen <Docm77> and this message was very interesting

<Docm77> she sent me coords of the poe bunker <Docm77> and the beds <Docm77> the thing is i am very much exiled right now <Docm77> even if i washt that is still too involved for my liking <Docm77> but you <Docm77> you like being involved dont you <bigbst4tz2> maybe i do <bigbst4tz2> what about it <Docm77> come on dude this has your name written all over it like <Docm77> youre nopoe <bigbst4tz2> nuh uh <bigbst4tz2> im NHNP there is a difference <Docm77> close enough <bigbst4tz2> NHNP has actual goals and demands while No Poe are unreas <bigbst4tz2> NPt CLOSE ENOUGJ, <Docm77> ok sure whatever lol <bigbst4tz2> =>:.{

<Docm77> but think about the murder bigb <Docm77> the murderrrrrrrrrrrr <Docm77> ooh and the waycherssssss <Docm77> dont they like yearn for blood or something <bigbst4tz2> Some do. <bigbst4tz2> but broadly they want emotions <bigbst4tz2> death games area quick way to get strong emotions fast thats why they let us do them so much <bigbst4tz2> sometimes its the blood but sometimes its what the blood means

<Docm77> how would you feel about me pawning her off to you <Docm77> on the condition that you trap the poe base and kill skizzleman and perhaps scar if you can find him <Docm77> would you do it <bigbst4tz2> i meannnnnnnn <bigbst4tz2> it almost seems too good to be true <bigbst4tz2> this is great timing for me as well believe it or not <Docm77> all the more reason to take it then right??? <bigbst4tz2> i promised someone id be entertaining <bigbst4tz2> and this sounds like a show

<Docm77> remember <Docm77> youre a great gambler <Docm77> this is just a gamble <Docm77> think about the roulette table bigb <bigbst4tz2> i remember falling for your insurance scam if thats what you mean <Docm77> you LITERALLY GAINED MONEY FROM THAT INTERACTION!!! <bigbst4tz2> tell you what <bigbst4tz2> i dont do this often but if youre not scamming me again ill be willing to put this behind me and call it even ok? <bigbst4tz2> because this is very helpful <bigbst4tz2> do we have a deal, documentm77 <Docm77> thats.not my name <Docm77> but yeah sure i guess its a deal now <bigbst4tz2> lovely!!! <bigbst4tz2> send coords <bigbst4tz2> illtrap the base <Docm77> how about i do you one better <Docm77> i send you the watcher <bigbst4tz2> that would be splendid <Docm77> pleasure doing business with you

And he couldn’t help but chuckle as he sent her his way.

Between dropping a shitload of anvils on the R.M.S. Symmetria, blowing random holes into the ground, and even exiling Ren in the first place, the Permit Office Enforcement was beginning to get on his nerves.

It was a shared grievance. Doc’s heart sank every time Ren had mentioned how lonely he was. But the company that was supposed to make his husband feel better just seemed to make Ren feel more guilty. Damn the POE for sending Ren here. Actually, damn the POE for letting him end up here too, if he was just sent to the original world spawn, maybe he could get back on his feet! But no, that’d be too convenient.

…

You know what? Screw it. This cannot stand.

[art-i-know-yes]

SPOILERS FOR LIMITED LIFE FINALES

im in class

Tango's Pov

rip skizz pour one out

laaaaassstttt epissoooooddeee

rough session is...yeah

"im the lowest!" "that's why you're in charge"

hiding. the plan is hiding.

Martyn always plans names

already bombing

team merge

bread bridge 2 is the hellscape

learning your lesson

scott is NOT waiting

Nosey Neighbors, TIME, Scott, and The Clockers

yeeeeaaaaahhhhhh

rule #1 is to always look up

one death and Etho is GOONNEE

grian scream :D

grian death :(

wow he wanted his time back

right back at him

BDUBS

awww ur soulmate

that looks awful

TANGO

oooo wasn't grian

surprise scar

14 MINUTES

they're hunting each other

DID THE BORDER MOVE

FALL DAMAGE

when did cleo die

rip tango

Scott's POV

whatcha doing babe

silent huh

YOU'RE NEARLY YELLOW

that's a lie

i just got Grian's notification

not for long

oh so martyn actually left the mean gills

im so excited to who's gonna win bc is not The Clockers

real time bomb set up

so...it went badly

one death

ok kinda figured it was planned

yes. very important to the deal.

gg babe

im so excited for Grian's pov bc wtf

like I know it's a game but like

scott dies in here

'sorry spilled my lava'

jinx

yeaaahhhh

a lot is happening

some of them hours

he's really just handing them out

scott is terrifying is the lesson

my heart

rip babe cause like

scott loses this game so sorry Beyonce

knew it was a play

"impulse :["

grian babe you had 5 hours. to have lost a solid 3.

OMG

Scott's--UGHH. the music he put scared me and THEN he backed away off the ladder. my heart.

GRIAN--WHY YOU ALWAYS AFTER SCAR

ALL THE CLOCKERS ARE OUT

"underwater?" "underwater." *next clip not in the water*

"i just wanna talk"

oooo they do (another headcannon lmao pearl and grian are siblings. of course very popular)

forgive each other's sins

"you can't see it from the ground" -joel

it's just up and up

so under bread bridge

plz no

grian is a 'yes and' man

GRIAN'S HACK

DIVE BABES

well there goes them

who died there

peaaaarll

RUN BIGB

HELL YEAH

"round table of compliments" for skizz!

scott keeps looking up and it's so funny

awwwwww

"you scare me" "awww"

"and now we kill each other"

rip bigb

bigb hacks

byeeeee dan

betrayal arc from i e

"martyyynnnn they tried to kill me" "who what where" "impulse and ethoooo" "alright they're dead" it's so cute

side note: my favorite thing out of this season is people being like 'this is a kindergarten playground.' i love it so much bc it's keeps it fun and cutesy. still love my angst tho

MEAN GILLS love em

the idea of everyone being like 1 or 2 deaths kicking them out the game is like exhilarating

oh. martyn.

NOO GRIAN last 6

everybody's off

BYEEE ETHO

Scott's so good

bye bye PEARL

mean gills vs impulse

8 minutes

even playing field

AHHHHHHH MARTYN

I figured it be one of them

HE WON YES OOO MEAN GILLS

babe said put him down

"my own mean gill. and i wouldn't have it any other way."

ya know the entire sun, star, moon win thing we got going on. well we have the Listener/Watcher which kind of fits in.

this is the the second time I've learned who won by actually watching and not just looking it up

Grian's Pov

solidarity. huh.

"my stuff"

i did vaguely think about boogey

well i wonder if that happens

"it works!"

well. there's that trap.

where's your mother

"went out for milk with the neighbor" lmao

oh. well. good idea.

he really is bc he's been wandering like this entire ep

literally did not hear a word from Grian other than a scream in...there

they're bullying him/j

was that a grian kill? i thought that was a tie kill

bad boy till the end

fun fun fun for the boy

the silent fights are the best bc you know they're all stressed

oh you created that one the sky height

IT WAS GRIAN

awww his cackle

it genuinely makes me very happy

he's just begging

ohhh that explains that one

oh that was pearl's

OH HE GOT CLEO TOO

final kills should give an hour

this season nobody actually ran out of food

like piranhas

too bad neither was right

the bridge will provide

potato pier will also provide

ok so i was right

gUlp

ya know each session is like 3 hours and so 8 episodes is basically 24 hours

oh so if you're in the same side you can't do anything but lmao

"MY BREAD"

babe just drowned

50 SECONDS

from every angle

what kills you grian I'm so curious but i have 8 more minutes

it's the feeling of being a badboy

awww scar's little 'cUtEgUy"

PROTECT THE PODCAST

ohhhh OHHH BC HE GAVE ETHO THE SWORD

even stevens

it's just loop and loop and loop

"pearl-friends PEARL.FRIENDS."

pearl is too feral

good luck

this music

WOOOOWWWW. YOU PULLED A JIM. YOU PULLED A JIMMY.

rip my bad boy

"ooOOOOoOooO spooky"

you did well tho. very good.

Jimmy. jimmy please. I SO BADLY WANT TO KNOW YOUR REACTION.

sighhhh the bad boy way spreads. they all died on bread bridge.

MARTYN'S MY LAST ONE AND I WOULD HAVE ACTUALLY FINISHED THE SERIES THE DAY OF AND NOT MONTHS AFTERWARDS...

Martyn's Pov

very excited to watch.

im listening on 2x speed bc he mostly with views I've watched

untrue and you know it

very funny fast speed voices

water people love it

oh he did that

oh so much happened

fast suspense music

for the /j

"Wow this map is huge" Yeah literally half of the map was just ignored

3 numbers that kill you from boat drop

you know the fact that Scott let them do that but i guess it makes sense bc he's pretty honest but

wow martyn

nope just Grian

he was instant with that jump

he killed etho WOO

mad maneuvers

almost pulled a tango

had to change it back to normal speed. headache :(

mean gills double team

you got him with his own bucket

scott was putting on work

'hard sweat hard sweat why you gaming so hard'

4 hr 8 min

like our fore fathers who watch on

lmao went insane

why we counting down

fair. ominous.

back here

OH YEAH I FORGOT ABOUT THE FRAGMENT SOUL THINGS

is he free from being a Listener now that his soul is safe

im so spacey that i can't really understand

ok wait. there are watchers. they are Listeners. not free but still trying to run away from a choice. after each perma death(?) [for martyn] there's a soul fragment and woven together they make his soul.

that's the gist, right?

ANYWAY THATS THE END AND AHAHHHHHHH IM SO HAPPY HE WON WOO

annnnddd im actually caught up on every pov bc the first 2 i only watched grian and in dl i got too behind and only watched grian's finale (as well as Jimmy's but...we all know how that ended)

anyway im happy. im scared to read angst. and i really want to see more of the kindergarten playground au type beat. but. yeah. that was fun.

[occasionally-victor]

Assigning some Ferry's songs to Last Life characters

I just happened to listen a lot of Ferry while brainrotting LL and now you have to deal with it

Some of those more about just the vibe of the song, some have fitting lyrics, you know the drill

RAPID TRANSIT - This song can be pretty much about all red lifers (like, overall), but if i had to choose only one as the most fitting to this song, i would pick Joel. Not really much explanations here, it just works in my head.

Mr Fox And The Disheartened Girl - Oh, this one is Martyn for sure. To be more specific, i think this song kinda fits the whole Watcher lore thing (obviously with Watcher as mr Fox and Martyn as the girl (without, like, wanting to die part)). Plus, i really like "This game is tearing myself and my world from the//Inside" part in regards of him.

The Faulty Feline Philosophy - Definitely Scar, in fact, this song was literally my first thought after i watched his session 5 video. "For the first time I felt pure excitement//At the limitless prospect of the mad//Adventures to be had | The counter's set to number 9//I'm feeling so alive" - well uh change 9 to 6 (because thats how many lives Scar got at the start which is max amount of lives you could get at the start bla bla you already know that), this goes hard. "With my flesh all torn to shreds//I see the number tick to null//I guess there was a certain death//I failed to take into account" - this part goes both for his final death (obviously, "number tick to null") and at the same time for him turning red at the end of 5th session (at the start of that session he had 7 lives, so having only 1 at the end is really not that different from having none.)

The rest under the cut.

DEAD HAND - Oooh this one is 4th-7th session Grian&Mumbo, i listened to DH far too many times after 4th session (and then after 5th. and then after 6th. and then- im a sad man). The song sounds very "something goes wrong and everything is catastrophically crumbling down and ends badly" which is. Very the vibes i getting from them. "The grave is all too lonely without your sickly body by my side" - lord almighty; "What a shame, you may call it senseless//But I am now devoid of what I would call//"The hindrance of love"" - goes very well with Grian becoming red after The Ghast Farm Incident; "Greetings from the underworld" - i feel sick im so normal about the whole "We can still be friends" bit. "A vision of you fades away like a mirage//Oh, it's a beautiful catastrophe" - woo hoo Grian got a life and became yellow again , the boys are reunited- what is it, the 6th sesession, Mumbo is boogey, everything happens, Mumbo is red now, its barely the start of the session. YEP beautiful catastrophe. ""Oh, this is all wrong!"//But I don't mind at all//Turn up the volume//Execute the protocol//You know it's M.A.D//And it's all about to blow" - "We can still be friends" bit? That part where Mumbo basically blew up pretty big chunk of Southlands? Dare i say, that part of 7th session that ended up in Grian permakilling Jimmy and Mumbo? i feel sick ("M.A.D" is Mutually Assured Destruction, we do not look at what it is irl (because we already ignoring here the whole what is Dead Hand system, we just doing some "haha those funky lyrics fits blockman stuff"), we just taking the phrase and run with it okay?) "What an unfortunate way to end this show//I shed a tear as you vanish in the snow" - just end me already.

through me to you - This one feels like BigB&Cleo (more BigB, than Cleo, but you get me) post BigB murdering Cleo. This song has that bittersweet and nostalgic vibe, "reminds of the things i've lost and won't ever be able to get back, things i regret, things i wish i'd done differently" (quote from comments under the song, it explained my thoughts very well and i suck at explaining my thoughts myself)

I hate it! - This one is Tango (6th-8th session). It sounds like an anger you can't do anything about, some sort of frustration. There isnt really any lyrics to point out (ok, kinda lying, "And in the end just one sorry note sorry note escapes my throat" is kinda fun in relation to the sounds of rage that Tango made after being murdered by Bdubs), the song just fits him pretty well imo.

Hack Writer - OK. LET'S PREFACE IT WITH ONE THING - I COMPLETELY (98%) IGNORED THE LYRICS english is not my first language its easy for me. That's not what i usually do, i'm all for fitting lyrics, but my brain heard the music spinning and whirling (idk how to really explain it) and went - yeah, that does give off some red life Mumbo vibes. Here's instrumental for that song.

hardbass night - I can't really explain why, but this song gives off huge Pearl vibe. Trust me, I'm russian (/hj). Plus, it's fun to assign a song, that is basically some sort of trashy rave music to a person, who blew up someone in a dancing room.

dopamine_machine - This one is also red life Mumbo. "Oh, this one is completely different vibe from Hack Writer-" well that's because now i look at him in the context of Grian&Mumbo storyline ("You’re running lemonade at thirty-six degrees centigrade//Inside your lemon veins//And your heart’s a lemon grenade" lemon(ade) -> yellow -> well, who was yellow when Mumbo was red? Just end me-). "And feel the taste of lead//Again, my friend" - ok the definition of "lead" in the song is supposed to be "metal" one, but since "lead" also means some sort of winning position, we are taking it instead. Something something these lyrics (the whole outro tbh) fitting to Mumbo being permakilled by Grian something something yes, i heard "my friend" part and went absolutely bonkers.

Bonus:

Occam's razor - This one is Grian&Mumbo again. i talk about them a lot here. not my problem tho. Starting with the whole Verse 1 ("So, I see, I found myself pinned up against another//Impenetrable wall//No, it won't take long at all//Short talk and go, don't look so shocked, come on!//It's fine//And even though I think this could be our goodbye//There's defiance in your eyes//Ah, of course, it must be pitiful to see someone with a face like this//Even if that somebody is me...") and, fuck it, the Chorus after ("It's a dead-end endeavor, it's time you understood//That this whole situation won't bring you any good!//Oh, I know that your heart's beating faster than it should//But I can't let you in - wouldn't even if I could") - Ghast Farm incident-"We can still be friends" bit goes brrrrr. "But I can't let you in, even though I wish I could" from songs outro just hurts me here on emotional level.

message lost - This one is Etho&Bdubs. I can't even explain the feeling that this song gave me, and why is it so them. It's just fits.

[guess what, its 17.10.2022 and its a lil update time, because brainrot staying strong fellas]

Convergence - take a wild guess. Yeah it's Grian&Mumbo (im not really over them lmao) , specifically 5-7 session vibes. ill spare myself and just put some fitting lyrics lmao: "Too naive to run on the edge of the knife//This is the worst [BEST] mistake I [YOU] could make in [YOUR] my life//To spark a flame I was [YOU WERE] never meaning to light//I never wanted to [YOU'RE SMART ENOUGH TO NOT] ignite//A losing fight//[RIGHT?]" || "So now that we are caught in a candid shot//And I know it’s all my fault//My blood’s running cold, yet//The air is getting hot//Every single word hits another nasty spot" || "As I've anticipated//Looks like your sense of decency has long degraded//But don’t forget with whom you are associated//Which sounds unfair, but fair play is overrated" || "It’s not about the strength, it’s about where you strike//You see, by now I’ve got no more dust left to bite//I’ve weaponized my helpless spite//Now how about that pride of yours?"

Ferry Medley // 22 Song Vocaloid Medley (by tart) - i just like that medley :]

[desolationcleo]

I picture the first "congratulations on your bit of success/we can't wait to see what you do next" as the evo end credits. Everything at the start takes place in evo to me and then when it does that glitchy sound right before the first "come outside" the "screen" glitches and cut to the life games

"you fell low but now you're high" is martyn and pearl. both tried to run, pearl may or may not have succeeded (albeit temporarily) and martyn both has listener... alignment? patronage? can't figure out how to describe it without sounding like tma avatardom. anyways. and also failed his mission in last life. but martyn managed to ascend to blorbo status, enough that they chose him to use as their weapon, and did eventually kill scott and win. meanwhile i highly doubt the watchers wouldn't love pearl in double life.

"they wanted heaven from me, i gave 'em hell" to me is grian the first time, scott the second, and martyn the third, the latter two both being Last Life specifically

the first "and if you're just as hopeless i wish you well", i picture grian lightning striking scott at the end of season 2, and the second one is scott blowing himself up and taking pearl with him

that second "don't you go / we need you here" cuts back to evo, depicts players being captured after trying to escape

also during the part at the start of the bridge that's mostly just instrumental with occasional quiet "we can't wait to see" i envision a group shot of everyone on evo but they start disappearing. first taurtis, then grian, then martyn, bigb, and jimmy, then pearl. then it cuts to last life where martyn is lying dead in the crater left by an end crystal explosion, and then cut to him in the dark asking for a moment to catch his breath.

on the "now they want something bigger" after this, the scene changes to him in season 4 after his victory. a lot of the bridge is just switching between martyn at the end of last life and at the end of limited life.

then, ok. so.

for "if it's my final album / and if i am forgotten / i hope i made you smile / that's all i ever wanted" i picture grian at the end of 3l, looking up at the sky before turning back to the ghosts, saluting them, and jumping off the mountain. and i'm just gonna straight-up. idk how to describe i'll just do it.

so a thread discussing grian's motives that lives rent free in my mind at one point mentions that grian may well have thought 3l was his last chance at living as a player, if not at living at all. while he may have known a second death game was a possibility, the watchers didn't decide until later on that there'd be another, so he wouldn't get the confirmation until postgame. "if it's my final album"

and there was a fic i read once where grian makes a deal with another watcher that involves leaving the game and going back where he belongs in exchange for getting the watchers to stop possessing scar. in this fic, when grian leaves the games, he's erased from the memories of the other players. "and if i am forgotten"

The mental animatic ends with everyone standing on a stage doing a theater bow in unison at the end of the play as the audience (a bunch of purple eyes) goes wild. the spotlight on the players is the moon. you can thank that one fic saga by theminecraftbee for this imagery being incorporated into my brain animatic.

btw trafficsmp fans need to discover the song finale by ajr like YESTERDAY especially those of us who are deep in watcher lore